MUN Help

Both when preparing for the conference, and when in lobbying time or session, you can look to this section of the website for help with resolutions, and research and more.

Getting Started

At EGMUN we do not require you to turn in a position paper. We expect you to prepare in the best way that you can, and that you will be able to present your views in the forum upon request of the chair at any given moment.

When starting research for your role as a delegate, the first thing you need to understand is that it is very rarely a successful strategy to search directly for your country’s opinion on a specific issue. Avoid googling ‘France’s opinion on democracy in Myanmar’, for example, but rather follow the 3 simple steps spelled out below.

1. Research your country:
– At CIA World Factbook you can find out facts about major trading partners, main sources of income, charged issues on the national political agenda etc. in order to form a general sense of the cultural climate of your country.
– At UN Member States you can find the official UN website of your country. Here you may download statements and speeches made by your country’s representatives and leaders on specific issues, and form an opinion of the country’s relations to the UN and it’s intensions with the membership.

2. Research your topic: – Search for newspaper articles about your topic, especially from newspapers with international focus, f.ex. The Herald Tribune. Through fairly objective sources you should try to obtain knowledge about the issue, by asking questions such as: Who are the opposing parties? What measures have already been taken, nationally and internationally? Did it help? If not, why?
– Download resolutions and reports from the UN at UNBISNET, by searching for any specific nation, treaty/convention/declaration or UN Mission (f.ex. MINURCAT or UNAMA) connected to your issue. In some cases it helps searching for the issue as it is worded here on the website in Google or UNBISNET, as many of our issues appear in real UN reports, agendas and resolutions.
– It is also possible to see whether your country voted in favor or against a previous resolution on the topic. That can be helpful in some situations, but at other times, it may be misleading and should be disregarded.
– If your issue deals with a MDG (Millennium Development Goal), you can download progress reports for your own country as well as the country in question (if any) at the MDG website.

3. Derive opinion: – Copy statements made by your country’s leaders and representatives on your topic into a blank document, and try to find specific points it is important for your country to focus on. Then it is easier for you to work these points into your own, or someone else’s resolution.
– Add specific facts and numbers about your issue (e.g. death counts, developments etc.) that you may use to support your arguments.
– Connect what you know about your country to specific information about the issue, and try to form a more general opinion, if one isn’t clear for example from policy statements and speeches from your country’s UN website.

By collecting information as described above, you will have a natural sense of what your country wants in the specific situations, and whether you can agree to a point on behalf of your country. The document described can function as a position paper, but one that enables you to form your own arguments, and take a stand on specific points you may not have prepared for at home.

If you need help during the conference, you are of course more than welcome to consult your chair or the Secretary General.